


An Owl's Delivery

by JBSteele



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 15:02:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28619988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JBSteele/pseuds/JBSteele
Summary: Hedwig has an important delivery to make.// I do not own Harry Potter. Pity.
Kudos: 6





	An Owl's Delivery

A snowy owl flew through the storm. It was an inconvenience for her, but because her master asked her to do this she would. A Familiar knows what Magic demands, and Hedwig was no ordinary post owl. If her Harry asked her to do it, then she would. Every other owl at Hogwarts knew by now that it was pointless to try to take anything for him if she was available to do it. Blood and feathers had been spilled to prove that.

Two hours ago, she had been tasked to deliver a letter and a small package. This in itself wasn’t unusual. She had carried many things in all conditions. In her down time, she would smugly say to the other owls that neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night would stay her from the swift completion of her deliveries. An old raven lodged in the Owlery nodded his sage head in approval even as the others stared at her doubtfully. And sure enough, nothing got lost. Some of the others couldn’t say that.

This time, however, she was starting to wonder if she bragged too much. The storm was messing with her sense of direction a bit and it was quite strong. The small package and accompanying letter was simply loaded with magic, and while it didn’t affect her much, if at all, she could tell that it was something that others would have had trouble with. Whatever it was, she was concerned.

Oh, sure, her Harry gave her assurances that she would be okay and he would never send her out to her death. Hedwig knew that, and knew in her soul that she would sacrifice herself for him if she had to. It was just the letter and the shrunken box tucked into a pouch on her leg that worried her. Between that and the rapidly changing gusts of wind, it made her flight difficult. Her Harry owed her big time when she got back.

Up ahead, her destination loomed. It was a manor similar to several that she had visited and Hedwig absently noted the style as being relatively ancient compared to the more modern estates nearby. She and the raven had compared notes on most of them and come to an agreement that places like this never boded well for post owls. Or ravens that tried their pinions at it, for that matter.

It didn’t take long to line up for a final approach to the owl delivery window. Frankly, she was getting quite tired of this weather and welcomed the chance to land somewhere and relax. At least the window was nice and large, with enchantments that extended out to buffer her from the constantly shifting wind and dry her off before she entered.

Hedwig entered the building and alighted on a stool that appeared to be long unused. The people inside drew wands and pointed them at her. A sharp command from a person in the largest chair there stayed whatever they would have cast. Some looked disappointed at this.

Hedwig drew herself up and demonstrated to all what a proper post owl should look like no matter the situation. No feather was out of place, her posture was upright, her talons gleamed, and she carried herself with the demeanor that some in the Hogwarts Owlery could never hope to match.

The man in the large chair grinned and stood. Others in the room fell back as he crossed the room to the owl on her perch. The addressee on the letter was plain to see, in a stylized calligraphy. It was sealed with the wax imprint of a Lord of a Noble House, but which one nobody could tell yet.

“Well! This is indeed a surprise, lady owl. Of all the things I could have imagined, I didn’t foresee this. Harry Potter’s owl Hedwig, bringing me owl post.” The red eyes crinkled in true amusement. “May I have your letter?”

Hedwig regarded him evenly until he held up his empty hands, then gave him an owlish sniff of almost disdain. She extended her leg toward him, where he could see the letter addressed to Thomas Riddle. An almost nonexistent eyebrow went up and he quickly cast detection spells on her burden.

“Prek!” She was unamused at his actions, and ruffled her feathers for a moment. The others in the room surged up toward the perch and he waved them back.

“I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but… sorry, Hedwig. Your master would do the same thing, wouldn’t he?”

She gave him another unamused glance, but conceded that. He chuckled to himself and removed the letter and bundle. Riddle – as she thought of him from the addressee part of the letter – sat down in the chair. He regarded her.

“You know, you remind me of Minerva McGonagall somehow. Same posture and same way of not suffering fools gladly.” He toasted her with his glass, placed at his elbow on a low table. “If I didn’t know her Animagus form was a cat, I’d suspect her to be perched there.”

Another owlish sniff. One of the Death Eaters spoke up before he could open the letter.

“What do we do with the owl, milord?”

“Nothing. That owl’s smarter and showed more bravery than a lot of you.” Hedwig seemed to agree with him, preening her feathers as she waited. “Potter’s a Gryffindor, so makes sense. Besides, this letter might require a reply. Now, as for your haste and for interrupting me, _crucio._ ”

The unfortunate Death Eater collapsed to the floor, screaming in agony as the Cruciatus stabbed into every part of his body. The others eased back as subtly as they could but none of them missed that the owl ignored the man howling on the floor. She was watching Riddle as he stowed his wand and read his letter. Parchment crackled in the silent room as he broke the seal and unfolded the letter. Absently, he noted that it was high-quality parchment and he mentally gave Potter points for that.

_Tom_

_The attached package will activate a message for you. Pay attention. There are no harmful enchantments. Touch your wand to the rune carved into the depression in the stone to activate._

_Harry Potter_

Intrigued, the Dark Lord enlarged and opened the package to find a flat stone. There was a small raised surface with a rune carved into it and a lowered surface with another rune. The whole thing was glowing with pent-up power, and Riddle was surprised at the power level contained in the stone. He found the rune and tapped it with his wand. It glowed red, then shifted into green and then blue before settling into a white that spread over the top surface.

He watched as a smoky surface manifested itself vertically, rising up from the stone. It looked to him like it was about two feet square, and marveled as a face started to appear on the surface. It took a moment to see that it was Harry Potter through the smoke. A moment passed and the image of Harry Potter began to speak.

_Hello, Tom. I’m sending you this_ _brief_ _recorded message to let you know a few things. Plus I wanted to see if I could do it. If I couldn’t talk to my worse enemy, then who could I talk to?_

_I sent Hedwig because I knew she would get this straight to you, instead of picking through it to see if it could be used to get further into your good graces. It seems to me that there are a lot of your Death Eaters that would do something just like that. So, in a way, she did you a faithful service._

Tom Riddle grunted. That was true. He gave Hedwig a piece of bacon from his ignored breakfast plate as a reward. The ‘recorded message’ went on.

_As you know, there’s a prophecy in play that concerns both of us and a lot of bad blood between us. One way or another, we will meet on the field of battle in a final meeting and only one of us will walk off that field. Which one? I don’t know but I’m hoping it’s me._

_You know this as well as I do, so I really don’t have to go into that or rehash anything._

_I’m sending this message to ask you if you have any plans for after and whether you really can trust anyone if you do. I’ve been building up a group of people I trust. Some you know, and some you don’t. It’s taken a lot of effort on my part to do and I imagine you know exactly what I’m talking about._

He did, actually.

_So, if you really want to win, it’s not all spell repertoire or magical power or even money although that helps. It’s about support. I’ve got that behind me. A lot of it too, starting with my mother who I think you’ll remember. Do you have that support? If you look around right now, will you see it or just see hidden ambition that could depose you? That can’t be good for your continued leadership, right?_

He looked around quickly and caught several guilty looks. It only took ten or twelve Avada Kedavras to settle that issue.

_I’d be making sure if I was a Dark Lord like you. There’s a lot of deposed leaders in Muggle history that trusted the wrong people. Wizarding or Muggle, human psychology is human psychology and you’re like me, a half-blood wizard. Ties to both worlds, you know. You know the saying that says those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, right?_

Riddle’s eyes narrowed.

_Well, that was all I wanted to say. Hopefully, this actually worked. If you want to try to send a reply, put your wand on the raised surface, wait for the chime to sound, and then speak your message. Do not remove your wand until you have completed what you have to say. Shrink the stone back as you got it for Hedwig to carry back to me. Be aware that the magic contained in the stone will not allow any other enchantments to be placed and any efforts to ‘reverse-engineer’ it will cause all the stored energy to release itself quite suddenly. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near it if that happened._

_Cheers_

_Harry Potter_

The surface collapsed into the smooth surface of the stone as the young man’s face faded out. A corner of Tom Riddle’s mind was intrigued at this means of communication and wondered how the younger man had found it. The Mudblood he was known to be around a lot might have done it. All accounts he had of her was that she was quite intelligent.

He ordered everyone to leave his presence and take the bodies with them. When the room was clear except for himself and a snowy owl, Riddle thought about the message he’d gotten. He looked at the owl.

“So, Hedwig, you would actually be willing to take a reply from me? You’re not worried about me killing you?”

She speared him with a distinct look that said _are you daft? Do I look concerned? Either send me back with a reply or send me back without. I have things to do_ _and I imagine you do too_ _._ _Quit wasting time._

He shook his head in amazement.

“I’m actually getting lectured by an owl. I don’t believe it. Does Potter have to put up with this from you?”

From the expression he got from Hedwig, it seemed so. She stared at him evenly without so much as moving a feather.

“Amazing. I don’t know who to feel sorry for.”

He placed the tip of his wand on the indicated rune and heard a chime. Flicking a glance at the snowy owl waiting patiently, he began speaking.

“Dear Potter. As your owl is quite insistent, I’m sending a reply...”

The End


End file.
